Typically, conventional brick-and-mortar retail stores make available on-site a number of sales associates to assist customers who might need help. These sales associates often are expected to be very familiar with the store's products and are employed on the assumption that the advice they provide will (1) add value to a customer's experience, thereby resulting in increased current sales, as well as an increased likelihood that customers will return to the store, and/or (2) help the customer make better-informed purchasing decisions, thereby resulting in decreased returns (i.e., decreased instances in which a purchased product fails to meet the customer's needs and/or expectations) and, therefore, decreased costs for the store. If the additional sales and/or the reduced costs from decreased returns sufficiently increase net revenues beyond the costs of the sales associate's compensation, the store can be more profitable. Having a knowledgeable sales associate can be particularly important with respect to certain specialized products (e.g., hardware, household appliances, electronics, fashion, or items pertaining to specific arts or skills).
Unfortunately, the present inventor has discovered several shortcomings with the conventional approaches to providing in-store customer service. For example, many brick-and-mortar stores try to diversify the products they sell in an attempt to increase overall traffic and/or to take advantage of cross-selling opportunities. However, such increasing product diversity typically requires (1) increased training of sales associates to handle a larger number of different products and/or (2) employing a larger number of specialized sales associates having different areas of expertise. Either approach can be very expensive for the retailer. In addition, irrespective of the amount of training provided, the depth of knowledge possessed by any individual sales associate (or even all of them combined) often will be insufficient to cover all possible situations. Still further, the present inventor has discovered that the conventional approach often results in a great deal of inefficiency because it can be difficult to anticipate how many sales associates will be needed at any particular time, and this problem is exacerbated when an appropriate mix of sales associates with different subject-matter expertise needs to be scheduled for the entire time that the store is open for business. Understaffing (either overall or in some particular subject-matter area, section or department) can result in lost sales, dissatisfied customers and subsequent increased returns, while overstaffing can result in excessive payroll expenditures.